LETTER: GWU should not face added tax

Published: Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 01:34 PM.

I am a junior at Gardner-Webb University. I opened up my email recently and a letter from the president was in my inbox. The letter explained that a new state law would be coming into effect that would cause our meal plans at Gardner-Webb to be taxed. The university explained that in order to make a smooth transition, they would absorb the cost for the Spring Semester but for the Fall Semester the cost would be passed back to the students. I am grateful for that, but how outrageous is that in the first place? It is my belief that Gardner-Webb's private status should provide them an exemption for this. Some would say, that's not a fair, a tax is a tax. Well it is already being done. Picking and choosing what applies and what does not has already happened. Gardner-Webb (and other private institutions) were given a special provision under the concealed carry reform law that allowed them to opt out of the requirement that public schools could not disallow concealed carry holders to keep their firearms locked and secured inside of their vehicles. My big issue here is that these institutions should not be treated like state institutions. While I would like to have the right to keep a weapon in my truck on Gardner-Webb's campus, I understand that by going to a private university, I am subject to its own set of private rules. The state government should not have the right to pick and choose what it wants to apply to private schools and what it doesn't. Especially when it comes to collecting taxes. It undermines the whole idea of a private education. And with the cost of private education being already as steep as it is, its not something the government should be messing with at all.

Will Stroupe

Boiling Springs, NC

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I am a junior at Gardner-Webb University. I opened up my email recently and a letter from the president was in my inbox. The letter explained that a new state law would be coming into effect that would cause our meal plans at Gardner-Webb to be taxed. The university explained that in order to make a smooth transition, they would absorb the cost for the Spring Semester but for the Fall Semester the cost would be passed back to the students. I am grateful for that, but how outrageous is that in the first place? It is my belief that Gardner-Webb's private status should provide them an exemption for this. Some would say, that's not a fair, a tax is a tax. Well it is already being done. Picking and choosing what applies and what does not has already happened. Gardner-Webb (and other private institutions) were given a special provision under the concealed carry reform law that allowed them to opt out of the requirement that public schools could not disallow concealed carry holders to keep their firearms locked and secured inside of their vehicles. My big issue here is that these institutions should not be treated like state institutions. While I would like to have the right to keep a weapon in my truck on Gardner-Webb's campus, I understand that by going to a private university, I am subject to its own set of private rules. The state government should not have the right to pick and choose what it wants to apply to private schools and what it doesn't. Especially when it comes to collecting taxes. It undermines the whole idea of a private education. And with the cost of private education being already as steep as it is, its not something the government should be messing with at all.